KING LEAR'S WIFE 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Play in One Act 



BY 

GORDON BOTTOMLEY 



NEW YOEK 

PAUL R. REYNOLDS 

1916 



^1^6003 



Copyright, 1916, by 
Gordon Bottomlky 




©CI.A4,'no;36 



KING LEAKS WIFE 



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KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The scene is a bedchamber in a one-storied 
house. The walls consist of a feiv courses 
of huge irregular boulders roughly squared 
and fitted together; a thatched roof rises 
steeply from the hack wall. In the centre 
of the back wall is a doorway opening on a 
garden and covered by two leather cur- 
tains; the chamber is partially hung with 
similar hangings stitched with bright 
tvools. There is a small ivindoiv on each 
side of this door. 

Toward the front a bed stands with its 
head against the right wall; it has thin 
leather curtains hung by thongs and drawn 
back. Farther forward a rich robe and a 
crown hang on a peg in the same wall. 
There is a second door beyond the bed, and 
between this and the bed's head stands a 
small table ivith a bronze lamp and a 
bronze cup on it. Queen Hygd, an ema- 
ciated woman, is asleep in IJie bed; her 
plenteous black hair, veined with silver, 

LSI 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

spreads over the pillow. Her waiting wo- 
man Merryn, middle-aged and hard-feat- 
tired, sits watching her in a chair on the 
farther side of the bed. The light of early 
morning fills the room. 

Merryn 

Many, many must die who long to live, 
Yet this one cannot die who longs to die : 
Even her sleep, come now at last, thwarts 

death, 
Although sleep lures us all half way to 

death. . . . 
I could not sit beside her every night 
If I believed that I might suffer so : 
I am sure I am not made to be diseased, 
I feel there is no malady can touch me— 
Save the red cancer, growing where it will. 

[Taking her beads from her girdle, 
she kneels at the foot of the bed.] 

sweet Saint Cleer, and sweet Saint Elid, 
too, 

L4: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Shield me from rooting cancers and from 

madness : 
Shield me from sudden death, worse than 

two death-beds ; 
Let me not lie like this unwanted queen, 
Yet let my time come not ere I am ready — 
Grant space enow to relish the watcher 's 

tears 
And give my clothes away and calm my 

features 
And streek my limbs according to my will. 
Not the hard will of fumbling corpse- 
washers. 

[She prays silently.'] 

[King Leae, a great, golden-bearded 
man in the fidl maturity of life, en- 
ters abruptly by the door beyond 
the bed, followed by the Physi- 
cian.] 

Leae 

Why are you here ? Are you here for ever f 

its: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Where is the young Scotswoman? Where 
is she? 

Merryn 

sire, move softly ; the queen sleeps at 
last. 

Lear 

[Continuing in an undertone.'] 

Where is the young Scotswoman? Where 

isGormflaith? 
It is her watch. ... I know ; I have marked 

your hours. 
Did the queen send her away? Did the 

queen 
Bid you stay near her in her hate of Gorm- 

flaith? 
You work upon her yeasting brain to 

think 
That she 's not safe except when you 

crouch near her 

[6] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

To spy with your dropt eyes and soundless 
presence. 

MEKEYlSr 

Sire, midnight should have ended Gorm- 

flaith's watch, 
But Gormflaith had another kind of will 
And ended at a godlier hour by slumber, 
A letter in her hand, the night-lamp out. 
She loitered in the hall when she should 

sleep. 
My duty has two hours ere she returns. 

Leae 

The queen should have young women about 

her bed, 
Fresh cool-breathed women to lie down at 

her side 
And plenish her with vigour ; for sick or 

wasted women 

1:7: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Can draw a virtue from such abounding 

presence, 
When night makes life unwary and looses 

the strings of being, 
Even by the breath, and most of all by 

sleep. 
Her slumber was then no fault : go you and 

find her. 

Physician 

It is not strange that a bought watcher 

drowses ; 
What is most strange is that the queen 

sleeps 
Who would not sleep for all my draughts of 

sleep 
In the last days. When did this change 

appear ? 

Merryn 

We shall not know— it came while 
Gormfiaith nodded. 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

When I awoke her and she saw the queen, 
She could not speak for fear : 
When the rekindling lamp showed 

certainly 
The bed-clothes stirring about our lady's 

neck, 
She knew there was no death, she breathed, 

she said 
She had not slept until her mistress slept 
And lulled her ; but I asked her how her 

mistress 
Slept, and her utterance faded. 
She should be blamed with rods, as I was 

blamed 
For slumber, after a day and a night of 

watching. 
By the queen's child-bed, twenty years ago. 

Leae 

She does what she must do : let her alone. 

1:9: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

I know her watch is now : get gone and 
send her. 

[Mereyn goes out by the door be- 
yond the bed.] 

Is it a portent now to sleep at night? 
What change is here 1 What see you in the 

queen ? 
Can you discern how this disease will end? 

Physician 
Surmise might spring and healing follow 

yet, 

If I could find a trouble that could heal ; 
But these strong inward pains that keep 

her ebbing 
Have not their source in perishing flesh. 
I have seen women creep into their beds 
And sink with that blind pain because they 

nursed 
Some bitterness or burden in the mind 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

That drew the life, sucklings too long at 

breast. 
Do you know such a cause in this poor 

lady? 

Leak 

There is no cause. How should there be a 
cause ? 

Physician 

We cannot die wholly against our wills; 
And in the texture of women I have found 
Harder determination than in men : 
The body grows impatient of enduring, 
The harried mind is from the body 

estranged. 
And we consent to go : by the queen's 

touch, 
The way she moves— or does not move— in 

bed. 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The eyes so cold and keen in her white 

mask, 
I know she has consented. 
The snarling look of a mute wounded hawk, 
That would be let alone, is always hers— 
Yet she was sorely tender : it may be 
Some wound in her affection will not heal. 
We should be careful— the mind can so be 

hurt 
That nought can make it be unhurt again. 
Where, then, did her affection most 

persist! 

Leak 

Old bone-patcher, old digger in men 's flesh. 
Doctors are ever itching to be priests. 
Meddling in conduct, natures, life's 

privacies. 
We have been coupled now for twenty 

years, 

[12: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And she has never turned from me an 

hour— 
She knows a woman's duty and a queen's : 
Whose, then, can her affection be but mine? 
How can I hurt her— she is still my queen? 
If her strong inward pain is a real pain 
Find me some certain drug to medicine it : 
When common beings have decayed past 

help, 
There must be still some drug for a king to 

use; 
For nothing ought to be denied to kings. 

PHYSICIAlSr 

For the mere anguish there is such a 

potion. 
The g-um of warpy juniper shoots is 

seethed 
With the torn marrow of an adder 's spine ; 
An unflawed emerald is pashed to dust 
[13] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And mingled there ; that broth must cool in 

moonlight. 
I have indeed attempted this already, 
But the poor emeralds I could extort 
From wry-mouthed earls' women had no 

force. 
In two more dawns it will be late for 

potions . . . 
There are not many emeralds in Britain, 
And there is none for vividness and 

strength 
Like the great stone that hangs upon your 

breast : 
If you will waste it for her she shall be 

holpen. 

Lear 
\With rising voice.'] 

Shatter my emerald? My emerald? My 

emerald ? 
A high king of Eire gave it to his daughter 

ni4: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Who mothered generations of us, the kings 

of Britain ; 
It has a spiritual influence ; its heart 
Burns when it sees the sun. . . . Shatter 

my emerald ! 
Only the fungused brain and carious mouth 
Of senile things could shape such thought. 

. . . My emerald ! 

[Hygd stirs uneasily in her sleep. '\ 

Physician 
Speak lower, low ; for your good fame, 

speak low— 
If she should waken thus . . . 

Lear 
There is no wise man 
Believes that medicine is in a jewel. 
It is enough that you have failed with one. 
Seek you a common stone. I '11 not do it. 

[15] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Let her eat heartily : she is spent with 

fasting. 
Let her stand up and walk : she is so still 
Her blood can never nourish her. Come 

away. 

Physician 

I must not leave her ere the woman 

comes— 
Or will some other woman . . . 

Lear 

No, no, no, no ; 
The queen is not herself ; she speaks 

without sense; 
Only Merrjm and Gormflaith understand. 
She is better quiet. Come. . . . 

{He urges the Physician roughly 
away hy the shoulder. '\ 

My emerald ! . . . 

ni6] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[He follows the Physician out hy 
the door at the back.] 

[Queen Hygd awakes at his last 
noisy words as he disappears.] 



Hygd 

I have not slept ; I did but close mine eyes 
A little while— a little while forgetting. . . . 
Where are you, Merrynf . . . Ah, it is not 

Merryn. . . . 
Bring me the cup of whey, woman ; I 

thirst. . . . 
Will you speak to me if I say your name ? 
Will you not listen, Gormflaithf . . . Can 

you hear I 
I am very thirsty— let me drink. . . . 
Ah, wicked woman, why did I speak to 

you: 
I will not be your suppliant again. . . . 
Where are you! 0, where are you ? . . . 

Where are you? 

[17] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[She tries to raise herself to look 
about the room, but sinks back 
helplessly.] 

[The curtains of the door at the 
back are parted, and Goneril ap- 
pears in hunting dress— her kirtle 
caught up in her girdle, a light 
spear over her shoulder— stand- 
ing there a moment, then entering 
noiselessly and approaching the 
bed. She is a girl just turning to 
womanhood, proud in her poise, 
swift and cold, an almost gleam- 
ing presence, a virgin huntress.] 



Goneril 

Mother, were you calling? 
Have I awakened you 1 
They said that you were sleeping. 
Why are you left alone, mother, my dear 
one? 

CIS] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 
Hygd 

Who are you I No, no, no ! Stand farther 

off! 
You pulse and glow ; you are too vital ; 

your presence hurts. . . . 
Freshness of hill-swards, wind and 

trodden ling, 
I should have known that Goneril stands 

here. 
It is yet dawn, but you have been afoot 
Afar and long : where could you climb so 

soon? 

Goneril 

Dearest, I am an evil daughter to you : 
I never thought of you— 0, never once— 
Until I heard a moor-bird cry like you. 
I am wicked, rapt in joys of breath and life. 
And I must force myself to think of you. 
I leave you to caretakers' cold gentleness ; 
[:i9] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

But 0, 1 did not think that they dare leave 

you. 
What woman should be here ? 

Hygd 

I have forgot. . . . 
I know not. . . . She will be about some 

duty. 
I do not matter : my time is done . . . nigh 

done. . . . 
Bought hands can well prepare me for a 

grave, 
And all the generations must serve youth. 
My girls shall live untroubled while they 

may, 
And learn happiness once while yet blind 

men 
Have injured not their freedom; 
For women are not meant for happiness. 
Where have you been, my falcon f 
1:20:] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

I dreamt that I was swimming, shoulder 

up, 
And drave the bed-clothes spreading to the 

floor: 
Coldness awoke me ; through the waning 

darkness 
I heard far hounds give shivering aery 

tongue, 
Remote, withdrawing, suddenly faint and 

near; 
I leapt and saw a pack of stretching 

weasels 
Hunt a pale coney in a soundless rush. 
Their elfin and thin yelping pierced my 

heart 
As with an unseen beauty long awaited ; 
Wolf-skin and cloak I buckled over this 

night-gear. 
And took my honoured spear from my 

bed-side 

n21] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Where none but I may touch its purity, 
And sped as lightly down the dewy bank 
As any mothy owl that hunts quick mice. 
They went crying, crying, but I lost them 
Before I stept, with the first tips of light, 
On Raven Crag near by the Druid Stones ; 
So I paused there and, stooping, pressed 

my hand 
Against the stony bed of the clear stream ; 
Then entered I the circle and raised up 
My shining hand in cold stern adoration 
Even as the first great gleam went up the 

sky. 

Hygd 

Ay, you do well to worship on that height : 
Life is free to the quick up in the wind. 
And the wind bares you for a god's 

descent— 
For wind is a spirit immediate and aged. 
1:22: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And you do well to worship harsh 

men-gods, 
God Wind and Those who built his Stones 

with him : 
All gods are cruel, bitter, and to be bribed. 
But women-gods are mean and cunning as 

well. 
That fierce old virgin, Cornish Merryn, 

prays 
To a young woman, yes and even a virgin— 
The poorest kind of woman— and she says 
That is to be a Christian : avoid then 
Her worship most, for men hate such 

denials, 
And any woman scorns her unwed 

daughter. 
Where sped you from the height? Did 

Began join you there? 

GONEEIL 

Does Regan worship anywhere at dawn? 
1:23] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The sweaty, half clad cook-maids render 

lard 
Out in the scullery, after pig-killing. 
And Regan sidles among their greasy 

skirts, 
Smeary and hot as they, for craps to suck. 
I lost my thoughts before the giant 

Stones. . . . 
And when anew the earth assembled round 

me 
I swung out on the heath and woke a hare 
And speared it at a cast and shouldered it, 
Startled another drinking at a tarn 
And speared it ere it leapt ; so steady and 

clear 
Had the god in his fastness made my mind. 
Then, as I took those dead things in my 

hands, 
I felt shame light my face from deep 

within, 

[24] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And loathing and contempt shake in my 

bowels, 
That such unclean coarse blows from me 

had issued 
To crush delicate things to bloody mash 
And blemish their fur when I would only 

kill. 
My gladness left me ; I careered no more 
Upon the morning ; I went down from 

there 
With empty hands : 
But under the first trees and without 

thought 
I stole on coneys at play and stooped at 

one; 
I hunted it, I caught it up to me 
As I outsprang it, and with this thin knife 
Pierced it from eye to eye ; and it was dead, 
Untorn, unsullied, and with flawless fur. 
Then my untroubled mind came back to me. 
1125] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 
Hygd 

Leap down the glades with a fawn's 

ignorance ; 
Live you your fill of a harsh purity ; 
Be wild and calm and lonely while you may. 
These are your nature's joys, and it is 

human 
Only to recognize our nature's joys 
When we are losing them for ever. 

GONERIL 

But why 
Do you say this to me with a sore heart ? 
You are a queen, and speak from the top 

of life, 
And when you choose to wish for others' 

joys 
Those others must have woe. 

Hygd 
The hour comes for you to turn to a man 

[26: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And give yourself with the high heart of 

youth 
More lavishly than a queen gives anything. 
But when a woman gives herself 
She must give herself forever and have 

faith ; 
For woman is a thing of a season of years, 
She is an early fruit that will not keep, 
She can be drained and as a husk survive 
To hope for reverence for what has been ; 
While man renews himself into old age. 
And gives himself according to his need. 
And women more unborn than his next 

child 
May take him yet with youth 
And lose him with their potence. 

GONERIL 

But women need not wed these men. 
1:27] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 
Hygd 

We are good human currency, like gold, 
For men to pass among them when they 
choose. 

[A child's hands heat on the outside 
of the door beyond the bed.] 

Cokdeil's Voice 
[A child's voice outside.] 

Father . . . Father . . . Father. . . . 

Are you here? 
Merryn, ugly Merryn, let me in. . . . 
I know my father is here. ... I want him. 

. . . Now. . . . 
Mother, chide Merryn, she is old and 

slow. . . . 

Hygd 

[Softly.] 

My little curse. Send her away— 
away. . . . 

[28: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

CoKDErL's Voice 

Father ... father, father. ... I want 
my father. 

GONERIL 

[Opening the door a little way.'] 

Hush; hush— you hurt your mother with 

your voice. 
You cannot come in, Cordeil ; you must go 

away: 
Your father is not here. . . . 

Cordeil, 's Voice 

He must be here : 
He is not in his chamber or the hall, 
He is not in the stable or with Gormflaith : 
He promised I should ride with him at 

dawn 
And sit before his saddle and hold his 
hawk, 

i:29n 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And ride with him and ride to the 

heron-marsh ; 
He said that he would give me the first 

heron, 
And hang the longest feathers in my hair. 

GONEEIL 

Then you must haste to find him ; 
He may be riding now. . . . 

Cordeil's Voice 
But Gerda said she saw him enter here. 

GONERIL 

Indeed, he is not here. . . . 

Cordeil's Voice 

Let me look. . . . 

GoNERIL 

You are too noisy. Must I make you go? 
[30] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Cordeil's Voice 
Mother, Goneril is unkind to me. 

Hygd 

[Raising herself in bed excitedly, 
and speaking so vehemently that 
her utterance strangles itself.'] 

Go, go, thou evil child, thou ill-comer. 



[Goneril, with a sudden strong 
movement, shuts the resisting 
door and holds it rigidly. The 
little hands heat on it madly for a 
moment, then the child's voice is 
heard in a retreating wail.] 



Goneril 

Though she is wilful, obeying only the king, 
She is a very little child, mother. 
To be so bitterly thought of. 
[31] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Hygd 

Because a woman gives herself for ever 
Cordeil the useless had to be conceived 
(Like an afterthought that deceives 

nobody) 
To keep her father from another woman. 
And I lie here. 

GONEKIL 

\_After a silence.] 

Hard and unjust my father has been to me ; 
Yet that has knitted up within my mind 
A love of coldness and a love of him 
Who makes me firm, wary, swift and 

secret, 
Until I feel if I become a mother 
I shall at need be cruel to my children, 
And ever cold, to string their natures 

harder 
And make them able to endure men 's 

deeds ; 

1:32] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

But now I wonder if injustice 
Keeps house with baseness, taught by 

kinship — 
I never thought a king could be untrue, 
I never thought my father was 

unclean. . . . 

mother, mother, what is it? Is this 

dying? 

Hygd 

1 think I am only faint. . . . 
Give me the cup of whey. . . . 

[GoNERiL takes the cup and, sup- 
porting Hygd, lets her drinlc.] 

GoNERIL 

There is too little here. When was it 
made? 

Hygd 

Yester-eve. . . . Yester-morn. . . . 

CSS] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

Unliappy mother, 
You have no daughter to take thought for 

you— 
No servant's love to shame a daughter 

with, 
Though I am shamed— you must have other 

food. 
Straightway I bring you meat. . . . 

Hygd 

It is no use. . . . 
Plenish the cup for me. . . . Not now, not 

now. 
But in a while ; for I am heavy now. . . . 
Old Wynoc 's potions loiter in my veins, 
And tides of hea\aness pour over me 
Each time I wake and think. I could sleep 
now. 

1134] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

Then I shall lull you, as you once lulled me. 

[Seating herself on the bed, she 
sings.] 

The owlets in roof-holes 
Can sing for themselves ; 
The smallest brown squirrel 
Both scampers and delves; 
But a baby does nothing- 
She never knows how — 
She must hark to her mother 
Who sings to her now. 
Sleep then, ladykin, peeping so ; 
Hide your bandies and ley lei lo. 

[She bends over Hygd and kisses 
her; they laugh softly together. 
Lear parts the curtains of the 
door at the back, stands there a 
moment, then goes away noise- 
lessly.] 

The lish baby otter 

Is sleeky and streaming 

CSSH 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

With catching bright fishes 
Ere babies learn dreaming ; 
But no wet little otter 
Is ever so warm 
As the fleecy- wrapt baby 
'Twixt me and my arm. 
Sleep, big mousie. . . . 

Hygd 
[Suddenly irritable.'] 
Be quiet. ... I cannot bear it. 

[She turns her head aivay from 
GoNERiL and closes her eyes.] 

[As GoNERiL watches her in silence, 
GoRMFLATTH cntcrs by the door 
beyond the bed. She is young and 
tall and fresh-coloured; her red 
hair coils and crisps close to her 
little head, shewing its shape. 
Her movements are soft and un- 
hurried; her manner is quiet and 
ingratiating and a little too agree- 
able; she speaks a little too gen- 
tly.] 

use: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GOISTERIL 

[Meeting her near the door and 
speaking in a loiv voice.] 

Why did you leave the queen ? Where 

have you been ? 
Why have you so neglected this grave 

duty? 

GORMFLAITH 

This is the instant of my duty, princess : 
From midnight until now was Merryn's 

watch. 
I thought to find her here: is she not here! 

[Hygd turns to look at the speakers; 
then, turning back, closes her eyes 
again and lies as if asleep.] 

GONERIL 

I found the queen alone. I heard her cry 
your name. 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GORMFLAITH 

Your anger is not too great, madam; I 

grieve 
That one so old as Merryn should act 

thus— 
So old and trusted and favoured and so 

callous. 

GONERIL 

The queen has had no food since yester- 
night. 

GORMFLAITH 

Madam, that is too monstrous to conceive 
I will seek food. I will prepare it now. 

GONERIL 

Stay here : and know, if the queen is left 

again, 
You shall be beaten with two rods at once. 
C38] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[She picks up the cup and goes out 
by the door beyond the bed.] 

[GoEMFLAiTH tums the chair a little 
away from the bed so that she can 
watch the far door, and, seating 
herself, draws a letter from her 
bosom.] 

GORMFLAITH 

[To herself, reading.] 
' ' Open your window when the moon is 

dead, 
And I will come again. 
The men say everywhere that you are 

faithless, 
The women say your face is a false face 
And your eyes shifty eyes. Ah, but I love 

you, Gormflaith. 
Do not forget your window-latch to-night, 
For when the moon is dead the house is 

still." 

1:39: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[Lear again parts the door-curtains 
at the hack and, seeing Gorm- 
FLAiTH, enters. At the first slight 
rustle of the curtains Gormflaith 
stealthily slips the letter hack into 
her hosom before turning gradu- 
ally, a finger to her lips, to see 
who approaches her.] 

Lear 

[Leaning over the side of her 
chair.] 

Lady, what do you read? 

Gormflaith 

I read a letter, sire. 

Lear 

A letter— a letter— what read you in a 
letter? 

Gormflaith 

[Taking another letter from her gir- 
dle.] 

[40] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Your words to me— my lonely joy your 

words. . . . 
' ' If you are steady and true as your 

gaze"— 

Lear 

[Tearing the letter from her, crum- 
pling it, and flinging it to the back 
of the room.] 

Pest! 
You should not carry a king's letters about, 
Nor hoard a king's letters. 

GORMFLAITH 

No, sire. 

Lear 

Must the king also stand in the presence 
now? 

i:41] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GORMFLAITH 

[Rising. '\ 

Pardon my troubled mind ; you have taken 
my letter from me. 

[Lear seats himself and takes Gorm- 
flaith's hand.'\ 

GORMFLAITH 

Wait, wait,— I might be seen. The queen 
may waken yet. 

[Stepping lightly to the bed, she 
noiselessly slips the curtain on 
that side as far forward as it will 
come. Then she returns to Lear, 
who draws her to him and seats 
her on his knee.] 

Leak 
You have been long in coming : 
Was Merryn long in finding you? 

Gormflaith 
[Playing with Lear's emerald.] 
Did Merryn . . . 

i:42] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Has Merryn been . . . She loitered long 

before she came, 
For I was at the women's bathing-place ere 

dawn. . . . 
No jewel in all the land excites me and 

enthralls 
Like this strong source of light that lives 

upon your breast. 

Leae 

{Taking the jewel-chain from his 
neck and slipping it over Gobm- 
flaith's head while she still holds 
the emerald.] 

Wear it within your breast to fill the gentle 

place 
That cherished the poor letter lately torn 

from you. 

GORMFLAITH 

Did Merryn at your bidding, then, forsake 
her queen? 

1:43: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[Lear nods.'\ 
You must not, ah, you must not do these 

masterful things, 
Even to grasp a precious meeting for us 

two; 
For the reproach and chiding are so hard 

to me, 
And even you can never fight the silent 

women 
In hidden league against me, all this house 

of women. 
Merryn has left her queen in unwatched 

loneliness, 
And yet your daughter Princess Goneril 

has said 
(With lips that scarce held back the spittle 

for my face) 
That if the queen is left again I shall be 

whipt. 

1144] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Lear 
Children speak of the punishments they 

know. 
Her back is now not half so white as yours, 
And you shall write your will upon it yet. 

GORMFLAITH 

Ah, no, my king, my faithful. . . . Ah, 

no . . . no. . . . 
The Princess Goneril is right; she judges 

me: 
A sinful woman cannot steadily gaze reply 
To the cool baffling looks of virgin untried 

force. 
She stands beside that crumbling mother 

in her hate. 
And, although we know so well— she and I, 

we know — 
That she could love no mother nor partake 

in anguish, 

[:45] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Yet she is flouted when the king forsakes 

her dam, 
She must protect her very flesh, her 

tenderer flesh. 
Although she cannot wince; she 's wild in 

her cold brain, 
And soon I must be made to pay a cruel 

price 
For this one gloomy joy in my uncherished 

life. 
En^'y and greed are watching me aloof 
(Yes, now none of the women will walk 

with me), 
Longing to see me ruined, but she '11 do 

it. . . . 
It is a lonely thing to love a king. . . . 

\^She puts her cheek gradually closer 
and closer to Leak's cheek as she 
speaks: at length he kisses her 
suddenly and vehemently, as if he 
would grasp her lips with his: she 
receives it passively, her head 
thrown hack, her eyes closed.'] 

[146: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Leak 
Goldilocks, when the crown is couching in 

your hair 
And those two mingled golds brighten each 

other's wonder, 
You shall produce a son from flesh 

unused — 
Virgin I chose you for that, first crops are 

strongest— 
A tawny fox with your high-stepping 

action, 
With your untiring power and glittering 

eyes, 
To hold my lands together when I am done, 
To keep my lands from crumbling into 

mouthfuls 
For the short jaws of my three mewling 

\dxens. 
Hatch for me such a youngster from my 

seed, 

1:473 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And I and he shall rein my hot-breathed 

wenches 
To let you grind the edges off their teeth. 

GORMFLAITH 

{Shaking her head sadly.'] 

Life holds no more than this for me ; this is 

my hour. 
When she is dead I know jou '11 buy 

another queen — 
Giving a county for her, gaining a duchy 

with her— 
And put me to wet nursing, leashing me 

with the thralls. 
It will not be unbearable— I 've had your 

love. 
Master and friend, grant then this hour to 

me: 
Never again, maybe, can we two sit 
At love together, unwatched, unknown of 

all, 

1:48] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

In tlie queen 's chamber, near the queen 's 

crown 
And with no conscious queen to hold it 

from us : 
Now let me wear the queen's true crown 

on me 
And snatch a breathless knowledge of the 

feeling 
Of what it would have been to sit by you 
Always and closely, equal and exalted. 
To be my light when life is dark again. 

Lear 

Girl, by the black stone god, I did not think 
You had the nature of a chambermaid, 
Who pries and fumbles in her lady's 

clothes 
With her red hands, or on her soily neck 
Stealthily hangs her lady's jewels or 

pearls. 

[49] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

You shall be tiring-maid to the next queen 
And try her crown on every day o ' your 

life 
In secrecy, if that is your desire : 
If you would be a queen, cleanse yourself 

quickly 
Of menial fingering and servile thought. 

GORMFLAITH 

You need not crown me. Let me put it on 
As briefly as a gleam of winter sun. 
I will not even warm it with my hair. 

Lear 

You cannot have the nature of a queen 
If you believe that there are things above 

you: 
Crowns make no queens, queens are the 

cause of crowns. 

i:5o: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GORMFLAITH 

[Slipping from Ms knee.] 

Then I will take one. Look. 

[She tiptoes lightly round the front 
of the bed to where the crown 
hangs on the wall.] 

Lear 
Come here, mad thing— come back ! 
Your shadow will wake the queen. 

GOEMFLAITH 

Hush, hush ! That angry voice 
Will surely wake the queen. 

[She lifts the crown from the peg, 
and returns with it.] 

Lear 
Go back ; bear back the crown : 
Hang up the crown again. 
We are not helpless serfs 
To think things are forbidden 
And steal them for our joy. 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GORMFLAITH 

Hush, hush ! It is too late ; 
I dare not go again. 

Lear 
Put down the crown : your hands are base 

hands yet. 
Give it to me : it issues from my hands. 

GORMFLAITH 

[Seating herself on his knee again, 
and crowning herself.] 

Let anger keep your eyes steady and bright 
To be my guiding mirror : do not move. 
You have received two queens within your 
eyes. 

[She laughs clearly, like a bird's 
sudden song.] 

[Hygd awakes and, after an instant's 
bewilderment, turns her head to- 
ward the sound; finding the bed- 

[152] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

curtain dropt, she moves it aside 
a little tvith her fingers; she 
watches Lear and Gormflaith for 
a short time, then the curtain slips 
from her weak grasp and she lies 
motionless.] 

Lear 

[Continuing meanwhile.] 

Doff it. . . . [Gormflaith kisses him.] 
Enough. . . . [Kiss.] Unless you do 
. . . [Kiss.] my will . . . [Kiss.] 

I shall . . . [Kiss.] I shall . . . [Kiss.] 
I '11 have you . . . [Kiss.] sent . . . 
[Kiss.] to . . . [Kiss.] 

Gormflaith 

Hush. 

Lear 
Come to the garden : you shall hear me 
there. 

1153] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GORMFLAITH 

I dare not leave the queen. . . . Yes, yes, I 

come. 

Lear 
No, you are better here : the guard would 

see you. 

GORMFLAITH 

Not when we reach the pathway near the 
appleyard. 

{They rise.'] 

Lear 

Girl, you are changed : you yield more 

beauty so. 

[They go out hand in hand by the 
doorway at the hack. As they pass 
the crumpled letter Gormflaith 
drops her handkerchief on it, then 
picks up handkerchief and letter 
together and thrusts them into her 
bosom as she passes out.] 

i:54] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Hygd 

[Fingering hack the bed-curtain 
again.] 

How have they vanished? What are they 
doing now? 

GORMFLAITH 

[Singing outside.] 

If you have a mind to kiss me, 

You shall kiss me in the dark : 

Yet rehearse, or you might miss me — 

Make my mouth your noontide mark. 

See, I prim and pout it so ; 

Now take aim and . . . No, no, no ! 

Shut your eyes, or you '11 not learn 

Where the darkness soon shall hide me : 

If you will not, then, in turn, 

I '11 shut mine. Come, have you spied me? 

[Gormflaith's voice groivs fainter 
as the song closes.] 

[55] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 
Hygd 

Does he remember love-ways used with 

me? 
Shall I never know? Is it too near? 
I '11 watch him at his wooing once again, 
Though I peer up at him across my 

grave- sill. 

[She gets out of bed and takes sev- 
eral steps toward the garden 
doorway; she totters and sways, 
then, turning, stumbles bach to 
the bed for support.'] 

Limbs, will you die? It is not yet the time. 
I know more discipline : I '11 make you go. 

[She fumbles along the bed to the 
head, then, clinging against the 
wall, drags herself toward the 
back of the room.] 

It is too far. I cannot see the wall. 

I will go ten more steps : only ten more. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. 

[56] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. 

Sundown is soon to-day : it is cold and 
dark. 

Now ten steps more, and much will have 
been done. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Ten. 

Eleven. Twelve. Sixteen. Nineteen. 
Twenty. 

Twenty-one. Twenty-three. Twenty- 
eight. Thirty. Thirty-one. 

At last the turn. Thirty-six. Thirty-nine. 
Forty. 

Now only once again. Two. Three. 

What do the voices say? I hear too many. 

The door : but here there is no garden. . . . 

Ah! 

l^She holds herself up an instant by 
the door-curtains; then she reels 
and falls, her body in the room, 
her head and shoulders beyond 
the curtains.'] 

C57] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[GoNERiL enters by the door beyond 
the bed, carrying the filled cup 
carefully in both hands.] 

GoNERIL 

Where are you 1 AVhat have you done ? 
Speak to me. 

[Turning and seeing Hygd, she lets 
the cup fall and leaps to the open 
door by the bed.] 

Merryn, hither, hither! . . . Mother, 

mother ! 

[She goes to Hygd. Merryn enters.] 

Merryn 
Princess, what has she done 1 Who has left 

her? 
She must have been alone. 

GONERIL 

Where is Gormflaith? 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

MERRYlSr 

Mercy o ' mercies, everybody asks me 
For Gormflaith, then for Gormflaith, then 

for Gormflaith, 
And I ask everybody else for her ; 
But she is nowhere, and the king will foam. 
Send me no more ; I am old with running 

about 
After a bodiless name. 

GONERIL 

She has been here, 
And she has left the queen. This is her 
deed. 

Merryn 

Ah ! cruel, cruel ! The shame, the pity . . . 

GONERIL 

Lift. 

{Together they raise Hygd, and 
carry her to bed.] 

n59] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL. 

She breathes, but something flitters under 

her flesh : 
Wynoc the leech must help us now. Go, 

run, 
Seek him, and come back quickly, and do 

not dare 
To come without him. 

Merryn 

It is useless, lady : 
There 's fever at the cowherd's in the 

marsh, 
And Wynoc broods above it twice a day. 
And I have lately seen him hobble thither. 

GoNERIL 

I never heard such scornful wickedness 
As that a king's physician so should choose 
To watch and even heal base men and 
poor— 

i:60] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And, more than all, when there 's a queen 
a-dying. . . . 

Hygd 
[Recovering consciousness.'] 

Whence come you, dearest daughter! 

What have I done ? 
Are you a dream? I thought I was alone. 
Have you been hunting on the windy 

height ? 
Your hands are not thus gentle after 

hunting. 
Or have I heard you singing through my 

sleep ? 
Stay with me now : I have had piercing 

thoughts 
Of what the ways of life will do to you 
To mould and maim you, and I have a 

power 
To bring these to expression that I knew 

not. 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Why do you wear my crown ? Why do you 

wear 
My crown, I say ! Why do you wear my 

crown? 
r am falling, falling ! Lift me : hold me up. 

[GoNERiL climbs on the bed and sup- 
ports Hygd against her shoulder.] 

It is the bed that breaks, for still I sink. 
Grip harder : I am slipping ! 

GoNERIL 

Woman, help ! 

[Merryn hurries round to the front 
of the bed and supports Hygd on 
her other side.] 

[Hygd points at the far corner of the 
room.] 

Why is the king's mother standing there? 
She should not wear her crown before me 

now. 
Send her away, she had a savage mind. 

n62] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Will 3"ou not hang a shawl across the 

corner 
So that she cannot stare at me again ? 

[With a rending sob she buries her 
face in Goneril's bosom.] 

Ah ! she is coming ! Do not let her touch 

me! 
Brave splendid daughter, how easily you 

save me ! 
But soon will Gormflaith come, she stays 

for ever. 
0, will she bring my crown to me once 

more? 
Yes, Gormflaith, yes. . . . Daughter, pay 

Gormflaith well. 

GONERIL 

Gormflaith has left you lonely : 
'T is Gormflaith who shall pay. 
[63] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Hygd 

No, Gormflaith; Gormflaith . . . Not my 

loneliness . . . 
Everything . . . Pay Gormflaith . . . 

[J/er head falls hack over Goneril's 
shoulder and she dies.'\ 

GONERIL 

[Laying Hygd down in bed again.'] 
Send horsemen to the marshes for the 

leech, 
And let them bind him on a horse's back 
And bring him swif tlier than an old man 

rides. 

Merryn 

This is no leech's work: she 's a dead 

woman. 
I 'd best be finding if the wisdom-women 
[64] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Have come from Brita's child-bed to their 

drinking 
By the cook's fire, for soon she '11 be past 

handling. 

GONERIL 

This is not death : death could not be like 

this. 
She is quite warm— though nothing moves 

in her. 
I did not know death could come all at 

once: 
If life is so ill-seated no one is safe. 
Cannot we leave her like herself awhile? 
Wait awhile, Merryn . . . No, no, no; not 

yet! 

Merryn 
Child, she is gone and will not come again, 
However we cover our faces and pretend 
She will be there if we uncover them. 

C65n 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

I must be hasty, or she '11 be as stiff 
As a straw mattress is. 

[She hurries out by the door near 
the bed.] 

GONERIL 

[Throwing the whole length of her 
body along Hygd's body, and em- 
bracing it.] 

Come back, come back ; the things I have 

not done 
Beat in upon my brain from every side : 
I know not where to put myself to bear 

them: 
If I could have you now I could act well. 
My inward life, deeds that you have not 

known, 
I burn to tell you in a sudden dread 
That now your ghost discovers them in me. 
Hearken, mother ; between us there 's a 

bond 

1166] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Of flesh and essence closer than love can 

cause : 
It cannot be unknit so soon as this, 
And you must know my touch, 
And you shall yield a sign. 
Feel, feel this urging throb : I call to 

you. . . . 

[GoKMFLAiTH, sUll crowfied, enters 
by the garden doorway.'] 

GORMFLAITH 

Come back ! Help me and shield me ! 

[She disappears through the cur- 
tains.'] 

[GoNERiL has sprung to her feet at 
the first sound of Goemflaith 's 
voice.] 

[Lear enters through the garden 
doorway, leading Goemflaith hy 
the hand.] 

Lear 

What is to do? 
[67: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

\_Advancing to meet them with a 
deep obeisance.'] 

sir, the queen is dead : long live the 

queen ! 
You have been ready with the coronation. 

Lear 

What do you mean? Young madam, will 
you mock? 

GoNERIL 

But is not she yoiir choice? 

The old queen thought so, for I found her 

here, 
Lipping the prints of her supplanter's feet, 
Prostrate in homage, on her face, silent. 

1 tremble within to have seen her fallen 

down. 
I must be pardoned if I scorn your ways : 
You cannot know this feeling tliat I know, 

[68] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

You are not of her kin or house ; but I 
Share blood with her, and, though she grew 

too worn 
To be your queen, she was my mother, sir. 

GORMFLAITH 

The queen has seen me. 

Lear 
She is safe in bed. 

GONERIL 

Do not speak low : your voice sounds guilty 

so; 
And there is no more need— she will not 

wake. 

Lear 
She cannot sleep for ever. When she 

wakes 
I will announce my purpose in the need 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Of Britain for a prince to follow me, 
And tell her that she is to be deposed. . . . 
What have you done ? She is not breathing 

now. 
She breathed here lately. Is she truly 

dead? 

GONERIL 

Your graceful consort steals from us too 

soon: 
Will you not tell her that she should 

remain— 
If she can trust the faith you keep with a 

queen? 

[She steps to Gormflaith, ivho is 
sidling toward the garden door- 
way, and, taking her hand, leads 
her to the foot of the bed.'] 

Lady, why will you go? The king intends 

That you shall soon be royal, and thereby 

Admitted to our breed : then stay with us 

CTO] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

In this domestic privacy to mourn 
The grief here fallen on our family. 
Kneel now; I yield the eldest daughter's 

place. 
Why do you fumble in your bosom so? 
Put your cold hands together; close your 

eyes, 
In inward isolation to assemble 
Your memories of the dead, your prayers 

for her. 

[She turns to Lear, who has ap- 
proached the bed and drawn back 
the curtain.] 

What utterance of doom would the king use 
Upon a watchman in the castle garth 
Who left his gate and let an enemy in! 
The watcher by the queen thus left her 

station : 
The sick bruised queen is dead of that 

neglect. 

1:71: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

And what should be the doom on a seducer 
Who drew that sentinel from his fixt 
watch? 

Lear 
She had long been dying, and she would 

have died 
Had all her dutiful daughters tended her 

bed. 

GONERIL 

Yes, she had long been dying in her heart. 
She lived to see you give her crown away ; 
She died to see you fondle a menial : 
These blows you dealt now, but what elder 

wounds 
Received them to such purpose suddenly? 
What had you caused her to remember 

most? 
What things would she be like to babble 

over 

i:72n 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

In the wild helpless hour when fitful life 
No more can choose what thoughts it shall 

encourage 
In the tost mind ? She has suffered you 

twice over, 
Your animal thoughts and hungry powers, 

this day, 
Until I knew you unkingly and untrue. 

Leae 
Punishment once taught you daughterly 

silence ; 
It shall be tried again. . . . What has she 

said? 

GONERIL 

You cannot touch me now I know your 

nature : 
Your force upon my mind was only terrible 
When I believed you a cruel flawless man. 
Ruler of lands and dreaded judge of men, 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Now you have done a murder with your 

mind, 
Can you see any murderer put to death? 
Can you . . . 

Lear 
What has she said? 

GONERIL 

Continue in your joy of punishing evil, 
Your passion of just revenge upon 

wrong-doers, 
Unkingly and untrue ? 

Lear 
Enough: what do you know? 

GONERIL 

That which could add a further agony 
To the last agony, the daily poison 
Of her late, withering life ; but never word 
[74] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Of fairer hours or any lost delight. 
Have you no memory, either, of her youth, 
While she was still to use, spoil, forsake. 
That maims your new contentment with a 

longing 
For what is gone and will not come again? 

Lear 
I did not know that she could die to-day. 
She had a bloodless beauty that cheated 

me: 
She was not born for wedlock. She shut 

me out. 
She is no colder now. ... I '11 hear no 

more. 

You shall be answered afterward for this. 

Put something over her : get her buried : 

I will not look on her again. 

[He breaks from. Goneril and flings 
abruptly out by the door near the 
bed.] 

[75: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GOKMFLAITH 

My king, you leave me ! 

GONERIL 

Soon we follow him: 
But, all, poor fragile beauty, you cannot 

rise 
While this grave burden weights your 

drooping head. 

[Laying her hand caressingly on 
Gormflaith's neck, she gradually 
forces her head farther and far- 
ther down.] 

You were not nurtured to sustain a crown. 
Your unanointed parents could not breed 
The spirit that ten hundred years must 

ripen. 
Lo, how you sink and fail. 

GORMFLAITH 

You had best take care, 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

For where my neck has bruises yours shall 

have wounds. 
The king knows of your wolfish snapping 

at me : , 

He will protect me. 

GoNERIIi 

Ay, if he is in time. 

GOEMFLAITH 

[Taking off the crown and holding 
it up blindly toivard Goneeil with 
one hand.] 

Take it and let me go ! 

GONERIL 

Nay, not to me : 
You are the queen's to serve her even in 

death. 
Yield her her own. Approach her : do not 
fear; 

1177] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

She will not chide you or forgive you now. 

Go on your knees ; the crown still holds 

you down. 

[GoRMFLAiTH stumhles forward on 
her knees and lays the crown on 
the bed, then crouches motion- 
lessly against the bedside.'] 

GONERIL 

[Taking the crown and putting it on 
the dead queen's head.] 

Mother and queen, to you this holiest 

circlet 
Returns, by you renews its purpose and 

pride ; 
Though it is sullied with a menial warmth, 
Your august coldness shall rehallow it, 
And when the young lewd blood that lent it 

heat 
Is also cooler we can well forget. 
{She steps to Gormflaith.] 
[78] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Else ! Come, for here there is no more 

to do, 
And let us seek your chamber, if you will. 
There to confer in greater privacy; 
For we have now interment to prepare. 

\_She leads Gormflaith to the door 
near the bed.] 

You must walk first, you are still the queen 
elect. 

[When Gormflaith has passed be- 
fore her GoNERiL unsheathes her 
hunting knife.] 

Gormflaith 
[Turning in the doorway.] 
What will you do ? 

GoNERIL 

[Thrusting her forward with the 
haft of her knife.] 

On! On! On! Go in! 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

[She follows GORMFLAITH out.] 

[After a moment's interval two el- 
derly women, one a little younger 
than the other, enter by the same 
door: they wear black hoods and 
shapeless black gowns with large 
sleeves that flap like the wings of 
ungainly birds: between them they 
carry a heavy cauldron of hot 
water.'] 

The Younger Woman 
We were listening. We were listening. 

The Elder Woman 

We were both listenins:. 



&• 



The Younger Woman 
Did she struggle ? 

The Elder Woman 
She could not struggle long. 

[They set down the cauldron at the 
foot of the bed.] 

[80] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The Elder Woman 

[Curtseying to the queen's body.] 

Saving your presence, madam, we are come 
To make you sweeter than you '11 be 

hereafter. 
And then be done with you. 

The Younger Woman 
[Curtseying in turn.] 

Three days together, my lady, y' have had 

me ducked 
For easing a foolish maid at the wrong 

time; 
But now your breath is stopped and you 

are colder, 
And you shall be as wet as a drowned rat 
Ere I have done with you. 

The Elder Woman 

[Fumbling in the folds of the robe 
that hangs on the wall.] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Her pocket is empty ; Merrjn has been here 

first. 
Hearken, and then begin : 
You have not touched a royal corpse 

before, 
But I have stretched a king and an old 

queen, 
A king's aunt and a king's brother too. 
Without much boasting of a still-born 

princess ; 
So that I know, as a priest knows his 

prayers, 
All that is written in the chamberlain's 

book 
About the handling of exalted corpses. 
Stripping them and trussing them for the 

grave : 
And there it says that the chief corpse- 
washer 
Shall take for her own use by sacred right 

[182: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The coverlid, the upper sheet, the mattress 
Of any bed in which a queen has died. 
And the last robe of state the body wore ; 
While humbler helpers may divide among 

them 
The under sheet, the pillow, and the bed- 
gown 
Stript from the cooling queen. 
Be thankful, then, and praise me every day 
That I have brought no other women with 

me 
To spoil you of your share. 

The Younger Woman 

Ah, you have always been a friend to me : 

Many 's the time I have said I did not know 

How I could even have lived but for your 

kindness. 

[The Elder Woman draws down the 
bed-clothes from the queen's body, 
loosens them from the bed, and 
throws them on the floor.] 

CSS] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The Elder Woman 

Pull her feet straight : is your mind 
wandering? 

[She commences to fold the bed- 
clothes, singing as she moves 
about.'] 

A louse crept out of my lady's shift— 
Ahumm, Ahumm, Ahee— 
Crying * ' Oi ! Oi ! We are turned adrift ; 
The lady's bosom is cold and stiffed, 
And her arm-pit 's cold for me." 

[ While the Elder Woman sings, the 
Younger Woman straightens the 
queen's feet and ties them to- 
gether, draws the pillotv from 
under her head, gathers her hair 
in one hand and knots it roughly; 
then she loosens her nightgown, 
revealing a jewel hung on a cord 
round the queen's neck.] 

[84: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The Elder Woman 

[Running to the vacant side of the 
bed.] 

What have you there? Give it to me. 

The Younger Woman 

It is mine: 
I found it. 

The Elder Woman 
Leave it. 

The Younger Woman 
Let go. 

The Elder Woman 

Leave it, I say. 

Will you not! Will you not? An eye for 

a jewel, then ! 

[She attacks the face of the Younger 
Woman ivith her disengaged 
hand. ] 

[85: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The Younger Woman 

[Starting hack.'] 

Oh! 

[The Elder Woman breaks the cord 
and thrusts the jewel into her 
pocket.] 

The Younger Woman 
Aie ! Aie ! Aie ! Old tliief ! You are 

alwaj^s thieving! 
You stole a necklace on your wedding day : 
You could not bear a child— you stole your 

daughter : 
You stole a shroud the morn your husband 

died: 
Last week you stole the Princess Regan's 

comb. . . . 

[She stumbles into the chair by the 
bed, and, throwing her loose 
sleeves over her head, rocks her- 
self and moans.] 

[86] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

The Eldek Woman 

[Resuming her clothes-folding and 
her song] 

The lady's linen 's no longer neat— 

Ahumm, Ahunim, Aliee; 

Her savour is neither warm nor sweet ; 

It 's close for two in a winding sheet, 

And lice are too good for worms to eat ; 

So here 's no place for me. 

[GoNEKiL enters by the door near the 
bed: her knife and the hand that 
holds it are bloody. She pauses a 
moment irresolutely.] 

The Elder Woman 

Still work for old Hrogneda, little 

princess ? 

[Goneril goes straight to the caul- 
dron, passing the women as if 
they were not there: she kneels 
and ivashes her knife and her 
hand in it. The women retire to 
the back of the chamber.] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

{Speaking to herself.'] 

The way is easy : and it is to be used. 
How could this need have been conceived 

slowly? 
In a keen mind it should have leapt and 

burnt : 
What I have done would have been better 

done 
When my sad mother lived and could feel 

joy. 

This striking without thought is better 

than hunting ; 
She shewed more terror than an animal, 
She was more shiftless. . . . 
A little blood is lightly washed away, 
A common stain that need not be 

remembered ; 
And a hot spasm of rightness quickly born 

[88;] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Can guide me to kill justly and shall guide. 

[Leak enters by the door near the 
bed.] 

Lear 
Goneril . . . Gormflaith, Gormflaith . . . 
Have you seen Gormflaith? 

GONEKIL 

I led her to her chamber lately, sir. 

Lear 
Ay, she is in her chamber. She is there. 

Goneril 
Have you been there already? Could you 
not wait ? 

Lear 
Daughter, she is bleeding : she is slain. 
[893 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

[Rising from the cauldron with 
dripping hands.'] 

Yes, she is slain : I did it with a knife : 

And in this water is dissolved her blood, 

[Raising her arms and sprinkling 
the queen's body.] 

That now I scatter on the queen of death 
For signal to her spirit that I can slake 
Her long corrosion of misery with such 

balm— 
Blood for weeping, terror for woe, death 

for death, 
A broken body for a broken heart. 
What will you say against me and my 

deed? 

Lear 

That now j^ou cannot save yourself from 
me. 

n90] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

While your blind virgin power still stood 

apart 
In an unused, unviolated life, 
You judged me in my weakness, and 

because 
I felt you unflawed I could not answer you ; 
But you have mingled in mortality 
And violently begun the common life 
By fault against your fellows ; and the 

state, 
The state of Britain that inheres in me 
Not touched by my humanity or sin. 
Passions or privy acts, shall be as hard 
And savage to you as to a murderess. 

GONERIL 

[Takittg a letter from her girdle.'] 

I found a warrant in her favoured bosom, 

king: 
She wore this on her heart when you were 

crowning her. 

1191] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 
Lear 
But this is not my hand : 

[Looking about him on the floor.] 
Where is the other letter? 

GONERIL 

Is there another letter? What should it 

say? 

Lear 
There is no other letter if you have none. 
[Reading.] 

' ' Open your window when the moon is 

dead, 
And I will come again. 
The men say everywhere that you are 

faithless . . . 
And your eyes shifty eyes. Ah, but I love 

you, Gormflaith. ..." 
This is not hers : she 'd not receive such 

words. 

i:92] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

GONERIL 

Her name stands twice therein : her 

perfume fills it : 
My knife went through it ere I found it on 

her. 

Lear 
The filth is suitably dead. You are my true 
dauarhter. 



'&' 



GoNERIL 

I do not understand how men can govern, 
Use craft and exercise the duty of cunning, 
Anticipate treason, treachery meet with 

treachery, 
And yet believe a woman because she looks 
Straight in their eyes with mournful, 

trustful gaze. 
And lisps like innocence, all gentleness. 
Your Gormflaith could not answer a 

woman's eyes. 

1193: 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

I did not need to read her in a letter ; 
I am not woman yet, but I can feel 
What untruths are instinctive in my kind, 
And how some men desire deceit from us. 
Come ; let these washers do what they must 

do: 
Or shall your queen be wrapped and 

coffined awry? 

[She goes out hy the garden doorway.'] 

Lear 

I thought she had been broken long ago : 
She must be wedded and broken, I cannot 
do it. 

[He follows GoNERiL out.] 

[The two women return to the bed- 
side.] 

The Elder Woman 

Poor, masterful king, he is no easier, 
Although his tearful wife is gone at last : 

[94] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

A wilful girl shall prick and thwart him 

now. 
Old gossip, we must hasten ; the queen is 

setting. 
Lend me a pair of pennies to weight her 

eyes. 

The Younger Woman 
Find your own pennies : then you can steal 
them safely. 

The Elder Woman 
Praise you the gods of Britain, as I do 

praise them. 
That I have been sweet-natured from my 

birth. 
And that I lack your unforgiving mind. 
Friend of the worms, help me to lift her 

clear 
And draw away the under sheet for you ; 
[95;] 



KING LEAR'S WIFE 

Then go and spread the shroud by the hall 

fire— 
I never could put damp linen on a corpse. 

[She sings.] 
The louse made off unhappy and wet;— 
Ahumm, Ahumm, Ahee— 
He 's looking for us, the little pet; 
So haste, for her chin 's to tie up yet, 
And let us begone with what we can get— 
Her ring for thee, her gown for Bet, 
Her pocket turned out for me. 



[96J 



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